Localization of merchant data

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are various embodiments for localization of merchant data. A computing device provides at least one localization option to a merchant, where the localization option relates to an offer listing associated with an item. A localization request is obtained from the merchant relating to the offer listing, and the content contained in the offer listing is parsed. Based at least in part on the localization request, the content is translated to generate a localized offer listing.

BACKGROUND

Merchants who participate in an electronic marketplace are often focusedon the performance of their virtual store and are interested intargeting customers in different geographic areas. Localization refersto the process of adapting content for a specific locale, such as, forexample, a particular region or language by adding locale-specificcomponents or translating text. Third party merchants face increasinglocalization issues as increasing global business leads to users who aremore geographically diverse. Such third party merchants may utilizeoffer listings to offer a wide range of items.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood withreference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings arenot necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a networked environment according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 2-4 are flowcharts illustrating examples of functionalityimplemented as portions of a localization application executed in acomputing device in the networked environment of FIG. 1 according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram that provides one exampleillustration of a computing device employed in the networked environmentof FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram that provides one exampleillustration of a merchant client employed in the networked environmentof FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure relates to localization of offer listings andspecifically, to localization of merchant data contained in offerlistings. Offer listings containing merchant data may often be providedin multiple languages. Content included within the offer listings of anetwork site sometimes may be provided in multiple languages. Generally,offer listings are utilized by merchants to offer items or products forsale to customers, for example, through an online catalog embodied asone or more network sites or other means. However, the network site maybe associated with a locale, such as a particular country, geographicarea, or language. A non-limiting example of a locale-specific networksite may involve, for example, the use of British English versusAmerican English for content within the network site. Translations of aparticular content item into a language may differ based upon thelocale.

When managing multiple network sites associated with different locales,it may be impractical to maintain a separate localized translation foreach locale. One approach to localization of offer listings containingmerchant data may include pre-translating merchant data forpre-determined locales. However, this may be inefficient from thestandpoint of translation resources since the locales being targeted bya merchant may constantly change. In the following discussion, a generaldescription of the system and its components is provided, followed by adiscussion of the operation of the same.

With reference to FIG. 1, shown is a networked environment 100 accordingto various embodiments. The networked environment 100 includes one ormore computing devices 103 in data communication with one or moremerchant clients 106 by way of a network 109. The networked environment100 also includes one or more customer clients 116 in data communicationwith the one or more merchant clients 106 and the computing devices 103by way of the network 109. The network 109 includes, for example, theInternet, intranets, extranets, wide area networks (WANs), local areanetworks (LANs), wired networks, wireless networks, or other suitablenetworks, etc., or any combination of two or more such networks.

Each computing device 103 may comprise, for example, a server computeror any other system providing computing capability. Alternatively, aplurality of computing devices 103 may be employed that are arranged,for example, in one or more server banks or computer banks or otherarrangements. For example, a plurality of computing devices 103 togethermay comprise a cloud computing resource, a grid computing resource,and/or any other distributed computing arrangement. Such computingdevices 103 may be located in a single installation or may bedistributed among many different geographical locations. For purposes ofconvenience, the computing device 103 is referred to herein in thesingular. However, even though each computing device 103 is referred toin the singular, it is understood that a plurality of computing devices103 may be employed in the various arrangements as described above.

Various applications and/or other functionality may be executed in thecomputing device 103 according to various embodiments. Also, variousdata is stored in a corresponding data store 117 that is accessible tothe computing device 103. The data store 117 may be representative of aplurality of data stores as can be appreciated. The data stored in thedata store 117, for example, is associated with the operation of thevarious applications and/or functional entities described below.

The components executed on the computing device 103, for example,include a localization application 118 configured to localize one ormore offer listings specified by the merchant client 106. Thelocalization application 118 includes, for example, a merchant interfaceapplication 121, a localization engine 124, and a network page server127 in addition to other applications, services, processes, systems,engines, or functionality not discussed in detail herein. For someembodiments, the merchant interface application 121 obtains aspecification of locale(s) where items are to be offered from themerchant client 106. The specification of locale(s) may relate tolocalization of one or more offer listings that may include one or moreitems associated with an electronic commerce site. An item may refer toa product, good, service, software download, multimedia download, socialnetworking profile, or any combination, bundle, or package thereof, thatmay be offered for sale, purchase, rental, lease, download, and/or anyother form of consumption as may be appreciated. The merchant interfaceapplication 121 is executed to generate one or more network pagesincorporating a user interface. The network page server 127 may beconfigured to receive the network pages generated by the merchantinterface application 121 and serve up the network pages to one or moremerchant clients 106. Note that for various embodiments, the componentsshown in the computing device 103 may be implemented in the samecomputing device 103 or distributed across a plurality of computingdevices 103.

The localization engine 124 performs the localization of the contentcontained in one or more offer listings specified by the merchant client106 using the user interface generated by the merchant interfaceapplication 121. Localization of the content is performed using theinformation obtained by the merchant interface application 121, whereinthe localization engine 124 may generate one or more localized offerlistings. The network page server 127 serves up the localized offerlistings to one or more customer clients 116 in the form of localizednetwork pages or other forms of network content, where the localizedoffer listings have been translated into one or more languages based atleast in part on the locale preferred by one or more users of thecustomer client 116. Other content in the localized offer listings suchas, for example, pricing information, is also localized according toselections made by the merchant client 106.

In this regard, the localized offer listings served up by the networkpage server 127 may correspond to offer listings that are generated by anetwork-based application in some embodiments. The offer listings mayinclude such localized elements as a translated item listing, pricinginformation specific to one or more locales, and so on where theparticular locales may be associated with users of the customerclient(s) 116. An electronic commerce system 129 in the computing device103 performs various backend functions associated with the onlinepresence of a merchant to facilitate the online purchase of items. Forexample, the electronic commerce system 129 may facilitate the selectionof items for purchase, rental, download, lease, or other forms ofconsumption and where fulfillment is performed through a fulfillmentnetwork.

The merchant interface application 121 is in data communication withmerchant clients 106 and receives such data as a localization selection144 and item information 147. For some embodiments, the merchantinterface application 121 generates a user interface embodied as anetwork page, for example, where the user interface is utilized toretrieve information from the merchant client 106. The user interfacemay be customized according to the merchant associated with the merchantclient 106. For example, the merchant interface application 121 mayprovide a list of locales that the merchant can select from forlocalizing content, where the list of locales may be generated based atleast in part on the geographical area(s) serviced by a materialhandling facility such as a fulfillment center or other facilityoperated by the merchant. Inventory described by a purchase order maythen be readily shipped to the fulfillment center and later sent to thecustomer such that shipping costs to customers are minimized. In thisregard, the merchant interface application 121 may have access to alisting of the locales in which one or more fulfillment centers of themerchant are located.

A localization selection 144 obtained by the merchant interfaceapplication 121 may include, for example, a selection of one or morelocales in which target offer listings associated with the merchantclient 106 are to be translated and localized for customers in theselected locales. The item information 147 retrieved by the merchantinterface application 121 from the merchant client 106 includes suchinformation as a specific item(s) and a stock keeping unit (SKU) orother identifier associated with a merchant, where the merchant SKUidentifies particular inventory from which transactions are to befulfilled. The merchant SKU may be associated, for example, withinventory in a particular location. The item information 147 alsoincludes pricing information relating to the specified item(s).

Electronic marketplaces are often associated with a particular country,and the products are typically priced using the currency associated withthe country. However, as different currencies exist, merchants may haveto manually convert a first price in their preferred currency to asecond price in the currency used in the electronic marketplace. Inaccordance with some embodiments, the merchant interface application 121is configured to adjust pricing of items in foreign marketplaces toaccount for fluctuations in currency exchange rates as a merchant mayhave a specific return in mind when listing an item for sale in aforeign electronic marketplace. Additional details on adjusting pricesof items in foreign marketplaces are described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/027,933 entitled “PRICING FOR FOREIGNMARKETPLACES,” which was filed on Feb. 15, 2011 and is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

The item information 147 may specify an existing offer listingcontaining item information 147 or may be presented in a feed-styleformat, where each item feed includes information about one or moreitems. In this regard, the merchant may specify one item at a time forlocalization or may specify a large volume of items via an item feed,which the localization engine 124 processes and localizes according toone or more locales selected by the merchant client 106.

The localization engine 124 performs localization of one or more offerlistings associated with the merchant client 106. Localization of anoffer listing(s) may include not only translation of description(s)relating to the item(s) but also reclassification of the item(s) basedat least in part on the locale selected by the merchant client 106. As anon-limiting example, the item description “customer electronicsphotography, digital camera” contained in an offer listing targetingcustomers in the United States may be reclassified as “customerelectronics, digital camera, DSLR” in Germany where the item descriptionin the offer listing targeting that locale is translated into German.

Upon receiving content to localize, the localization engine 124 parsesthe content contained in the item information 147. Referring back to thenon-limiting example above, the localization engine 124 may parse anitem description such that the terms “customer electronics” are groupedtogether rather than separated. Upon parsing the content, thelocalization engine 124 accesses the data store 117 to determine whethertranslation data 148 relating to at least a portion of the content isalready available so that translation of that portion may be bypassed.

To this end, the localization engine 124 is configured to parse thecontent to identify content items capable of generic translation versuscontent items that may require translation by translation professionals.Additional details on how to distinguish between content items that arecapable of generic translation versus content items that requirelocalized translation are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/891,266 entitled “LANGUAGE LOCALIZATION FOR NETWORK SITES,” which wasfiled on Sep. 27, 2010 and is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety. The localization engine 124 may also access the data store 117to determine whether previous pricing data 151 furnished by the merchantclient 106 is already available.

The network page server 127 is executed to serve up localized offerlistings to the customer clients 116 and operates in conjunction withthe electronic commerce system 129 to perform purchase transactions. Thelocalized offer listings may include such offer listing source data ashypertext markup language (HTML), extensible markup language (XML),extensible HTML (XHTML), mathematical markup language (MathML), scalablevector graphics (SVG), cascading style sheets (CSS), images, audio,video, graphics, text, and/or any other data that may be used in servingup or generating the offer listings. In some embodiments, the offerlisting source data may be distributed across multiple data stores. Thenetwork page server 127 may comprise a commercially available hypertexttransfer protocol (HTTP) server such as, for example, Apache® HTTPServer, Apache® Tomcat®, Microsoft® Internet Information Services (IIS),and so on.

The merchant client 106 is representative of a plurality of clientdevices that may be coupled to the network 109. The merchant client 106may comprise, for example, a processor-based system such as a computersystem. Such a computer system may be embodied in the form of a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, personal digital assistants, cellulartelephones, smartphones, set-top boxes, music players, web pads, tabletcomputer systems, game consoles, electronic book readers, or otherdevices with like capability. The merchant client 106 may include adisplay device 157. The display device 157 may comprise, for example,one or more devices such as cathode ray tubes (CRTs), liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) screens, gas plasma-based flat panel displays, LCDprojectors, or other types of display devices, etc.

The merchant client 106 may be configured to execute variousapplications such as a browser 160 and/or other applications. Thebrowser 160 may be executed in a merchant client 106, for example, toaccess and render offer listings, such as web pages, or other networkcontent served up by the computing device 103 and/or other servers,thereby generating a rendered offer listing in the form of a networkpage 163 on the display device 157.

Similarly, the customer client 116 used by customers to access localizedoffer listings may comprise, for example, a processor-based system suchas a computer system. Such a computer system may be embodied in the formof a desktop computer, a laptop computer, personal digital assistants,cellular telephones, smartphones, set-top boxes, music players, webpads, tablet computer systems, game consoles, electronic book readers,or other devices with like capability. The customer client 116 mayinclude a display device 177. The display device 177 may comprise, forexample, one or more devices such as cathode ray tubes (CRTs), liquidcrystal display (LCD) screens, gas plasma-based flat panel displays, LCDprojectors, or other types of display devices, etc.

The customer client 116 may be configured to execute variousapplications such as a browser 170 and/or other applications. Thebrowser 170 may be executed in a customer client 116, for example, toaccess and render offer listings, such as web pages, or other networkcontent served up by the computing device 103 and/or other servers,thereby generating a rendered offer listing in the form of a networkpage 173 on the display device 177.

Referring next to FIG. 2, shown is a flowchart that provides one exampleof the operation of a portion of the localization application 118according to various embodiments. It is understood that the flowchart ofFIG. 2 provides merely an example of the many different types offunctional arrangements that may be employed to implement the operationof the portion of the localization application 118 as described herein.As an alternative, the flowchart of FIG. 2 may be viewed as depicting anexample of steps of a method implemented in the computing device 103(FIG. 1) according to one or more embodiments. The flowchart of FIG. 2depicts the high level operation of the localization process executed bythe localization application 118.

Beginning with box 203, the merchant interface application 121 (FIG. 1)provides to a merchant one or more localization options relating to anoffer listing(s) to be localized where the offer listing(s) isassociated with an item to be purchased by a customer in a particularlocale. Note that the one or more localization options the localizationoption may be provided based at least in part on one or more determinedlocations of inventory associated with the merchant. In someembodiments, the localization option may be provided based at least inpart on electronic marketplaces of interest to the merchant, registeredmarketplaces associated with the merchant, or fulfillment capabilitiesof the merchant. The offer listing(s) to be localized may be specifiedby the merchant client 106 (FIG. 1).

The merchant interface application 121 may retrieve a selection from themerchant client 106 through a user interface. The user interfacedisplays one or more locales for which the offer listing specified bythe merchant client 106 may be localized. In some embodiments, themerchant interface application 121 may display a list of languagesrather than a list of locales that the merchant client 106 may selectfrom.

As described above, the merchant interface application 121 may provide alist of locales that the merchant can select from for localizingcontent. For some embodiments, the list of locales or list of languagesmay be generated based at least in part on the geographical area(s)serviced by a material handling facility such as a fulfillment center orother facility operated by the merchant such that inventory described ina purchase order may be readily shipped to the fulfillment center andlater sent to the customer. In this regard, the merchant interfaceapplication 121 may have access to a listing of the locales in which oneor more fulfillment centers of the merchant are located.

In box 206, the merchant interface application 121 obtains alocalization selection 144 (FIG. 1) from the merchant relating to theoffer listing(s) to be localized, where the localization selection 144may include one or more selections from the list of locales/languagesprovided by the merchant interface application 121 via the userinterface described above. The merchant interface application 121 mayalso obtain item information 147 (FIG. 1) from the merchant client 106,where the item information 147 includes pricing information associatedwith the selected locale(s), reclassification information, the cost ofshipping between a given fulfillment center and a given customer, and soon. The item information 147 may be, for example, in the form of HTML,XML, XHTML, MathML, SVG, images, text, and/or other types of content.

In box 209, the localization engine 124 (FIG. 1) parses contentcontained in the offer listing(s) specified by the merchant client 106to undergo localization. For some embodiments, the localization engine124 is configured to parse the content to identify content items capableof generic translation versus content items that may require localizedtranslation. For content items capable of generic translation, thelocalization engine 124 accesses the data store 117 (FIG. 1) to searchlocalization data 145 (FIG. 1) generated as a result of pastlocalization performed on other content. As described above,localization data 145 may include translation data 148 (FIG. 1)associated with generic terms. As a non-limiting example, thetranslation data 148 may include such phrases as “digital camera” and“ebook reader” available in five languages.

Content items, determined by the localization engine 124, withoutgeneric translation equivalents may be routed to another portion of codeexecuting within the same computing device 103 executing thelocalization engine 124. However, the content items without generictranslation equivalents may also be routed to another computing device103. For some embodiments, one or more computing devices 103 may beconfigured to provide such content items to translation professionals,where the translation professionals process any remaining portions ofthe content to generate a translated version. The localization engine124 may be configured to receive the content processed by thetranslation professionals. The localization engine 124 may be furtherconfigured to search pricing data 151 (FIG. 1) in the data store 117 todetermine whether previous pricing information is available for theitem(s) selected by the merchant client 106. If previous pricinginformation is available, such pricing may be displayed to the merchantclient 106 as a suggested price. Ultimately, the merchant client 106specifies the pricing of the item to be displayed to customersassociated with the selected locale(s).

In box 212, the localization engine 124 performs a translation of thecontent based at least in part on the localization request received fromthe merchant client 106, where the location request may include alocalization selection 144 and item information 147. In box 215, thenetwork page server 127 serves up the localized offer listing(s) to oneor more customer client 116 (FIG. 1), which customers may then utilizeto conduct transactions using the localized content. The network pageserver 127 may send the localized offer listing(s) through the use ofHTTP and/or other communications protocols. Thereafter, the portion ofthe localization application 118 ends.

Referring next to FIG. 3, shown is a flowchart that provides one exampleof the operation of a portion of the merchant interface application 121according to various embodiments. It is understood that the flowchart ofFIG. 3 provides merely an example of the many different types offunctional arrangements that may be employed to implement the operationof the portion of the merchant interface application 121 as describedherein. As an alternative, the flowchart of FIG. 3 may be viewed asdepicting an example of steps of a method implemented in the computingdevice 103 (FIG. 1) according to one or more embodiments. The merchantinterface application 121 is executed in the computing device 103 andinterfaces with the merchant client 106 (FIG. 1) over the network 109(FIG. 1).

Beginning with box 303, the merchant interface application 121 obtains alocalization selection 144 (FIG. 1) from the merchant client 106(FIG. 1) relating to one or more locales for performing localization. Asdescribed above, the list of locales from which the localizationselection 144 is selected may be generated based at least in part on thegeographical area(s) serviced by a material handling facility such as afulfillment center or other facility operated by the merchant such thatinventory described by a purchase order may be readily shipped to thefulfillment center and later sent to the customer such that shippingcosts to customers are minimized.

In box 306, the merchant interface application 121 obtains iteminformation 147 (FIG. 1) from the merchant client 106 relating to atleast one item. The item information 147 may include a description ofthe item, shipping information relating to the item, and so on. In box309, the merchant interface application 121 obtains timing informationrelating to when the localized offer listing(s) is to be made availablefor customers to view and conduct purchase transactions. That is, thetiming information may specify when the localized offer listing(s) is togo live and begin processing purchase requests.

In box 312, the merchant interface application 121 obtains a merchantSKU from the merchant client 106 relating to fulfillment of purchaseorders, where the merchant SKU specifies specific inventory forfulfilling purchase orders. By specifying a merchant SKU, a merchant isable to control which inventory at a particular location is accessed forfulfilling purchase orders. In box 315, the merchant interfaceapplication 121 obtains pricing information from the merchant client 106specific to the locales selected by the merchant. While suggestedpricing may be provided to the merchant client 106, the final listedprice used for a localized item listing(s) is generally finalized by themerchant client 106. Thereafter, the portion of the merchant interfaceapplication 121 ends.

Referring next to FIG. 4, shown is a flowchart that provides one exampleof the operation of a portion of the localization engine 124 accordingto various embodiments. It is understood that the flowchart of FIG. 4provides merely an example of the many different types of functionalarrangements that may be employed to implement the operation of theportion of the localization engine 124 as described herein. As analternative, the flowchart of FIG. 4 may be viewed as depicting anexample of steps of a method implemented in the computing device 103(FIG. 1) according to one or more embodiments.

Beginning in box 403, the localization engine 124 parses the contentcontained in the item information obtained from the merchant client 106(FIG. 1) according to generic translation blocks. In box 406, uponparsing the content, the localization engine 124 reclassifies portionsof the parsed content. In box 409, the localization engine 124 accessesthe data store 117 (FIG. 1) to determine whether translation data 148(FIG. 1) relating to the content or a portion of the content is alreadyavailable so that translation of that portion may be bypassed. To thisend, the localization engine 124 is configured to parse the content toidentify content items capable of generic translation versus contentitems that may require localized translation.

In box 412, content items determined by the localization engine 124 notto be capable of generic translation may be routed to anothertranslation entity such as, for example, translation professionals, whoprocess any remaining portions of the content to generate a translatedversion. In box 415, the localization engine 124 may be furtherconfigured to search pricing data 151 in the data store 117 to determinewhether previous pricing information relating to the merchant client 106is available for the item(s) selected by the merchant client 106. In box418, localized content is generated by the localization engine 124. Notethat for some embodiments, the localization engine 124 may also beconfigured to adjust pricing of items in foreign marketplaces to accountfor fluctuations in currency exchange rates as a merchant may have aspecific return in mind when listing an item for sale in a foreignelectronic marketplace. In box 421, the localization engine 124 may beconfigured to track and index the newly generated location data forfuture access so that only portions of newly specified content must betranslated while the rest is retrieved from the data store 117 (FIG. 1).Thereafter the portion of the localization engine 124 ends.

With reference to FIG. 5, shown is a schematic block diagram of thecomputing device 103 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The computing device 103 includes at least one processorcircuit, for example, having a processor 503 and a memory 506, both ofwhich are coupled to a local interface 509. To this end, the computingdevice 103 may comprise, for example, at least one server computer orlike device. The local interface 509 may comprise, for example, a databus with an accompanying address/control bus or other bus structure ascan be appreciated.

Stored in the memory 506 are both data and several components that areexecutable by the processor 503. In particular, stored in the memory 506and executable by the processor 503 are the localization application 118and the electronic commerce system 129, and potentially otherapplications. Also stored in the memory 506 may be a data store 117 andother data. In addition, an operating system may be stored in the memory506 and executable by the processor 503.

Referring next to FIG. 6, shown is a schematic block diagram of themerchant client 106 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The merchant client 106 includes at least one processorcircuit, for example, having a processor 603 and a memory 606, and adisplay device 157, which are all coupled to a local interface 609. Thelocal interface 609 may comprise, for example, a data bus with anaccompanying address/control bus or other bus structure as can beappreciated. The merchant client 106 may also include various peripheraldevices coupled to the local interface 609. In particular, peripheraldevices may include input devices, for example, a keyboard, keypad,touch pad, touch screen, microphone, scanner, mouse, joystick, or one ormore push buttons, etc. The peripheral devices may also includeindicator lights, speakers, printers, etc.

Stored in the memory 606 are both data and several components that areexecutable by the processor 603. In particular, stored in the memory 606and executable by the processor 603 are the browser 160 and potentiallyother applications. In addition, an operating system may be stored inthe memory 606 and executable by the processor 603.

Referring now to both FIGS. 5 and 6, it is understood that there may beother applications that are stored in the memories 506, 606 and areexecutable by the processors 503, 603 as can be appreciated. Where anycomponent discussed herein is implemented in the form of software, anyone of a number of programming languages may be employed such as, forexample, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, Perl, PHP,Visual Basic, Python, Ruby, Delphi, Flash, Shockwave, or otherprogramming languages.

A number of software components are stored in the memories 506, 606 andare executable by the respective processors 503, 603. In this respect,the term “executable” means a program file that is in a form that canultimately be run by the processors 603, 703. Examples of executableprograms may be, for example, a compiled program that can be translatedinto machine code in a format that can be loaded into a random accessportion of the memories 506, 606 and run by the respective processors503, 603, source code that may be expressed in proper format such asobject code that is capable of being loaded into a random access portionof the memories 506, 606 and executed by the respective processors 503,603, or source code that may be interpreted by another executableprogram to generate instructions in a random access portion of thememories 506, 606 to be executed by the respective processors 503, 603,etc. An executable program may be stored in any portion or component ofthe memories 506, 606 including, for example, random access memory(RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive, solid-state drive, USB flashdrive, memory card, optical disc such as compact disc (CD) or digitalversatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetic tape, or other memorycomponents.

The memories 506, 606 are defined herein as including both volatile andnonvolatile memory and data storage components. Volatile components arethose that do not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatilecomponents are those that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, thememories 506, 606 may comprise, for example, random access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flashdrives, memory cards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disksaccessed via an associated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed viaan optical disc drive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tapedrive, and/or other memory components, or a combination of any two ormore of these memory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, forexample, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other suchdevices. The ROM may comprise, for example, a programmable read-onlymemory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), anelectrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or otherlike memory device.

Also, each processor 503, 603 may represent multiple processors 503, 603and each memory 506, 606 may represent multiple memories 506, 606 thatoperate in parallel processing circuits, respectively. In such a case,the respective local interface 509, 609 may be an appropriate network109 (FIG. 1) that facilitates communication between any two of themultiple processors 503, 603, between any processor 503, 603 and any ofthe respective memories 506, 606, or between any two of the respectivememories 506, 606, etc. The local interfaces 509, 609 may compriseadditional systems designed to coordinate this communication, including,for example, performing load balancing. The processors 503, 603 may beof electrical or of some other available construction.

Although the localization application 118, the electronic commercesystem 129, and other various systems described herein may be embodiedin software or code executed by general purpose hardware as discussedabove, as an alternative the same may also be embodied in dedicatedhardware or a combination of software/general purpose hardware anddedicated hardware. If embodied in dedicated hardware, each can beimplemented as a circuit or state machine that employs any one of or acombination of a number of technologies. These technologies may include,but are not limited to, discrete logic circuits having logic gates forimplementing various logic functions upon an application of one or moredata signals, application specific integrated circuits havingappropriate logic gates, or other components, etc. Such technologies aregenerally well known by those skilled in the art and, consequently, arenot described in detail herein.

The flowcharts of FIGS. 2-4 show the functionality and operation of animplementation of portions of the localization application 118. Ifembodied in software, each block may represent a module, segment, orportion of code that comprises program instructions to implement thespecified logical function(s). The program instructions may be embodiedin the form of source code that comprises human-readable statementswritten in a programming language or machine code that comprisesnumerical instructions recognizable by a suitable execution system suchas a processor 503, 603 in a computer system or other system. Themachine code may be converted from the source code, etc. If embodied inhardware, each block may represent a circuit or a number ofinterconnected circuits to implement the specified logical function(s).

Although the flowcharts of FIGS. 2-4 show a specific order of execution,it is understood that the order of execution may differ from that whichis depicted. For example, the order of execution of two or more blocksmay be scrambled relative to the order shown. Also, two or more blocksshown in succession in FIGS. 2-4 may be executed concurrently or withpartial concurrence. Further, in some embodiments, one or more of theblocks shown in FIGS. 2-4 may be skipped or omitted. In addition, anynumber of counters, state variables, warning semaphores, or messagesmight be added to the logical flow described herein, for purposes ofenhanced utility, accounting, performance measurement, or providingtroubleshooting aids, etc. It is understood that all such variations arewithin the scope of the present disclosure.

Also, any logic or application described herein, including thelocalization application 118 and the electronic commerce system 129,that comprises software or code can be embodied in any non-transitorycomputer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instructionexecution system such as, for example, a processor 503, 603 in acomputer system or other system. In this sense, the logic may comprise,for example, statements including instructions and declarations that canbe fetched from the computer-readable medium and executed by theinstruction execution system. In the context of the present disclosure,a “computer-readable medium” can be any medium that can contain, store,or maintain the logic or application described herein for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system. The computer-readablemedium can comprise any one of many physical media such as, for example,magnetic, optical, or semiconductor media. More specific examples of asuitable computer-readable medium would include, but are not limited to,magnetic tapes, magnetic floppy diskettes, magnetic hard drives, memorycards, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, or optical discs. Also, thecomputer-readable medium may be a random access memory (RAM) including,for example, static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM). Inaddition, the computer-readable medium may be a read-only memory (ROM),a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmableread-only memory (EEPROM), or other type of memory device.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations setforth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure.Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit andprinciples of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure andprotected by the following claims.

Therefore, the following is claimed:
 1. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium embodying at least one program executable in acomputing device, the at least one program comprising: code thatgenerates a first network page including a first user interface thatincludes a localization option for selection by a merchant relating toat least one offer listing of the merchant to be localized, wherein thelocalization option is based at least in part on stored data whichincludes a location of a fulfillment center of the merchant with respectto at least one target locale of the merchant; code that sends the firstnetwork page including the first user interface over a network to amerchant client device for rendering on a display of the merchant clientdevice; code that obtains a localization request via the first userinterface of the first network page rendered on the merchant clientdevice, wherein the localization request includes a language selectioncorresponding to the localization option, the language selection beingfor localization of the at least one offer listing; code that parsescurrent content contained in the at least one offer listing; code thatretrieves, based at least in part on the localization request,translated content from the stored data in response to a translationbeing available for at least a portion of the current content that hasbeen parsed; code that translates the current content by replacing thecurrent content with the translated content to generate at least onelocalized offer listing based at least in part on the localizationrequest; and code that, in response to a query from a customer clientdevice, sends a second network page including a second user interfaceincluding the at least one localized offer listing to the customerclient device, the second user interface being different from the firstuser interface.
 2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim1, wherein the localization request further includes item information,pricing information, and timing information.
 3. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the timing informationrelates to availability of the localized offer listing to customersassociated with the language selection.
 4. A method, comprising:generating, by at least one computing device, a first network pageincluding a first user interface comprising at least one localizationoption associated with at least one current offer listing by a merchantof at least one item in a current electronic marketplace that isassociated with at least one current locale, wherein the at least onecurrent offer listing is stored in stored data and the at least onelocalization option allows the merchant to be associated with at leastone localized offer listing of the at least one item in a differentelectronic marketplace that is associated with at least one differentlocale that relates to at least a language and a geographical area;providing over a network, by the at least one computing device, thefirst network page including the first user interface to a merchantclient device for rendering on the merchant client device; obtaining, bythe at least one computing device, a localization request from themerchant client device via the first user interface of the first networkpage, the localization request associated with the at least onelocalization option and relating to the at least one localized offerlisting; based at least in part on the localization request,translating, by the at least one computing device, content to generatethe at least one localized offer listing having localized content, theat least one localized offer listing being associated with the differentelectronic marketplace associated with the at least one differentlocale; and sending, by the at least one computing device, a secondnetwork page including a second user interface including the at leastone localized offer listing to a customer client device, the second userinterface being different from the first user interface.
 5. The methodof claim 4, wherein the localization request is provided by the merchantat least in part in feed format.
 6. The method of claim 4, furthercomprising determining the at least one localization option based atleast in part on at least one inventory location of the merchant.
 7. Themethod of claim 4, further comprising determining the at least onelocalization option based at least in part on fulfillment capabilitiesof the merchant.
 8. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining thelocalization request comprises: obtaining, by the at least one computingdevice, information relating to the at least one item; obtaining, by theat least one computing device, a selection relating to at least onelocale; and obtaining, by the at least one computing device, pricinginformation relating to the at least one item.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein obtaining the localization request further comprises: obtaining,by the at least one computing device, timing information relating toavailability of the at least one localized offer listing; and makingavailable, by the at least one computing device, the at least onelocalized offer listing.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the at leastone localization option comprises the language associated with the atleast one different locale, wherein the language is utilized fortranslation of the content contained in the at least one current offerlisting.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least onelocalization option comprises a marketplace locale selected from a listof inventory locations of the merchant.
 12. The method of claim 8,wherein obtaining the localization request further comprises obtaining,by the at least one computing device, at least one merchant identifierrelating to inventory.
 13. The method of claim 4, wherein translatingthe content to generate the at least one localized offer listingcomprises parsing, by the at least one computing device, the contentcontained in the at least one current offer listing.
 14. The method ofclaim 13, wherein translating the content to generate the at least onelocalized offer listing comprises: determining, by the at least onecomputing device, whether a prior translation is available in the storeddata for at least one parsed portion of the content contained in the atleast one current offer listing; and responsive to the prior translationbeing available, retrieving, from the stored data by the at least onecomputing device, the prior translation for the at least one parsedportion of the content.
 15. The method of claim 4, further comprisingstoring at least a portion of the at least one localized offer listingfor future access in the stored data.
 16. A system, comprising: at leastone computing device comprising stored data; and a localizationapplication executable in the at least one computing device, thelocalization application comprising: logic that provides a first networkpage including a first user interface over a network to a merchantclient device, the first user interface including at least onelocalization option relating to at least one offer listing of a merchantin the stored data to be localized; logic that obtains a localizationrequest via the first user interface of the first network page renderedon the merchant client device, the localization request relating to theat least one offer listing and including at least one language fortranslating content in the at least one offer listing; logic thatlocalizes the content to generate at least one localized offer listingbased at least in part on the localization request; and logic that, inresponse to a query via a customer client device, provides localizedcontent to the customer client device via a second network pageincluding a second user interface, the localized content correspondingto the at least one localized offer listing.
 17. The system of claim 16,wherein logic that provides the at least one localization option isconfigured to determine the at least one localization option based atleast in part on fulfillment capabilities of the merchant.
 18. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein the logic that localizes the content isfurther configured to archive at least a portion of the localizedcontent for future access in the stored data.
 19. The system of claim16, wherein the localization request comprises at least one localeselection, pricing information, and a merchant identifier associatedwith an inventory of the merchant.
 20. The system of claim 16, whereinthe localization request further comprises timing information relatingto availability of the at least one localized offer listing with respectto customers.
 21. The system of claim 16, wherein the logic thatlocalizes the content is further configured to: parse the contentcontained in the at least one offer listing; and translate the contentthat has been parsed to generate the at least one localized offerlisting.